U.S. online and mail-order sales of drugs, health and beauty aids 2003-2020
In 2020, the value of e-commerce sales of pharmaceuticals and beauty aids stood at 75.5 billion U.S. dollars, up from 51.7 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier. The online and mail-order sales share of total e-commerce in this segment has increased from around 31 to 38 percent in the same period.
CVS Health is another leading player in the U.S. drugstore segment, with almost 10,000 CVS stores nationwide. The health chain generates nearly 90 billion U.S. dollars in retail sales annually. In 2020, it was estimated that over 4.5 billion retail prescriptions were filled in the United States, and CVS Health accounted for more than one-third of them.
How the drugs, health, and beauty segment compares
The total value of retail trade sales in the United States amounted to almost 5.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020, a considerable rise from the 3.8 trillion a decade earlier. The drugs, health and personal care sector in the United States is not the largest in the retail market, being surpassed, among others, by the apparel and accessories and the food and beverages industries. However, pharmacy and drug store sales reached 300 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. Over-the-counter (OTC) medication accounted for over 36 billion U.S. dollars in sales during the same year, the highest-selling year to date for the OTC segment.Leading U.S. drugstores
Walgreens is the global market leader in health and beauty retail, and its home base, the United States, is no exception. The drugstore has almost 9,000 retail establishments across the country and fulfills more than 800 million prescriptions per year.CVS Health is another leading player in the U.S. drugstore segment, with almost 10,000 CVS stores nationwide. The health chain generates nearly 90 billion U.S. dollars in retail sales annually. In 2020, it was estimated that over 4.5 billion retail prescriptions were filled in the United States, and CVS Health accounted for more than one-third of them.
